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Wednesday, July 11, 2012

SOLANO ALLEY

After a few years of living in a nice up and coming neighborhood in East Oakland I decided to move back to the ghetto. Still in East Oakland this is not just any ghetto it's "Pimp Central" to be exact, 17th and International Blvd. where ladies of the night work around the clock, pimps make some monies, and hustlers keep hustling cuz it's the mothafucken Boulevard homes!!! For some sick reason these grimy streets feel more like home to me, I can be myself around all these crazy fucks, and for my own sanity I need to be around as many brown people as possible lol... I mean, before moving to Oakland from La Mission in SF I called 18th and Capp St. my home, so being surrounded by pimps and ho's and waking up to a bum sleeping on my door step is nothing new. It's a comforting reality check that slaps me across the face everyday letting me know shit is cray out there so be grateful for what I've got cuz we all know that for you and me the world is a ghetto...

Don't get me wrong though, there's lots of new and exciting things happening in my hood... I'm very lucky to be surrounded by dope creative neighbors who are trying to clean up around here and beautify Solano Alley with their art. The Elefont Artist crew have been putting in mad work, Chris Granillo, Jonny Nagel and others, see some of it below...

Both the piece (above) and the one (below) where done by Chris Granillo

Roar (above)

Goser (above)

Ryno (above) getting started on his piece.

My other neighbors and homies at Amor Eterno Tattoo are at the center of all the changes, they hold dope art shows at the shop, and donate their walls for artist to come through and do their thing... I love having this place so close to home, the vibe there is super chill and welcoming, definitely check them out if you're ever in the area...

Another homie behind some of these happenings is Ken Davis (above) also my neighbor, he's a dope artist who's killing it in the typography/script/lettering game for sure! A couple of Sunday's ago he called some of his folks to come though and paint some walls while the homegirl Amy of Amor Eterno and I grilled some food for them...

It was a chill day kicking back and the homies Mike Giant, Krash, Paco Excel, Ken Davis got down...

(Giant and Me)

(Krash, Giant, Excel, Chamuco, and Ken Davis)

Thank you all for helping to keep Oakland beautiful and Solano Alley clean, I'm grateful to have you as my neighbors and homies... I'm stoked to see what other changes and positive things Solano Alley has in store for this breezy.